Final Word
by Kate Taylor
Summary: She glanced again toward the covered body filled with both curiosity and dread. So many thoughts were running through her head, so jumbled that they didn't make sense. And the dull ache in her chest... why couldn't she make sense of any of it?


Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not my own but are the property of Wolf Productions and NBC

Rated: G

Summery: She glanced again toward the covered body filled with both curiosity and dread. So many thoughts were running through her head, so jumbled that they didn't make sense. And the dull ache in her chest... why couldn't she make sense of any of it?

**----- Final Word -----**

It felt strange. The cold, December snow swirling around her. The dark scene before her. The uniforms, the on-lookers, the dark form which lay a few hundred feet ahead, shielded from view by a coat undoubtedly offered by one of the uniforms surveying the grizzly scene. It was funny how everyone seemed to be moving so quickly and yet time stood still if only for her. It felt strange.

And she couldn't remember. The events leading up to this moment. How had she even gotten here? What was this place? Who was this victim? She stepped forward, her heart quickening though she wasn't sure why. That's when she noticed him. The second body, laying sprawled out on the ground not far from the first victim. The large pool of blood he lay in clearly came from the gaping wound to his chest... a gunshot wound. She knew because no one had even bothered to cover this one up.

And yet she felt no pity for him. Why? She was unsure. She couldn't even remember who he was if or if she'd ever even known in the first place. She stepped toward him to look closer.

A gun lay in the snow not far from his right hand. He'd fired at their victim. She knew that. And she'd fired back. She knew that too. She?

One of the uniforms stood near her now, his hardened gaze focused on this man but he made no glance her way. She wanted to speak, she had so many questions, but she found herself unable to voice anything at all.

The rest of them stood near the covered body speaking in voices she was only barely able to make out. Everything seemed so terribly still and quiet and slow.

"Did you make the call?" A nameless face asked.

Another nodded grimly.

"Partner's on his way."

Partner? Had this hit one of their own?

A strong gust of wind whistled through the trees just then and several of them pulled their coats tighter around themselves to keep warm. But she didn't even notice the chill. She glanced again toward the covered body filled with both curiosity and dread. So many thoughts were running through her head, so jumbled that they didn't make sense. And the dull ache in her chest... why couldn't she make sense of any of it?

She remembered sitting at her desk but that must have been hours ago. And she remembered the drive here, alone, following a lead. And had she called for back up? Her breath caught in her throat until the stabbing pain in her chest subsided.

She stepped toward the body and knelt down in the snow. The feelings of dread were overwhelming now.

He was here now, she sensed it. Even if she hadn't heard the commotion. Heard the hushed voices of the uniforms, saw the grim faces all glancing toward the dark vehicle pulling up. But her attention was just as quickly pulled back toward the body laying at her knees.

Still kneeling in the snow and a small blizzard coming down around her, shouldn't she be freezing by now, she wondered? She reached for the coat covering the body and gently pulled it away.

She nodded as though she'd known all along as a strange sense of peace came over her for the first time. A gleam caught her eye and she reached for the object, holding it for a moment in the palm of her hand.

When she turned back to see him standing there, her eyes blurred as a single tear made its way down her face. There had been so many things she'd meant to say.

She turned away and closed her eyes to welcome the darkness.

Slowly, he stepped forward. Everything was so deathly silent, the uniforms standing back to allow him this moment. The falling snow fading into the background. The chilly, howling wind a distant thought. His eyes were damp and he felt almost too paralyzed too move but he willed himself forward anyway.

So many thoughts were running through his head, so jumbled that they didn't make sense. Why had she gone alone? And why hadn't she waited for backup. There were no answers... there never would be answers. He knelt there now, his vision blurred with unshed emotion.

The coat that had covered her had been pulled back and there were flecks of snow through her dark brown hair. He ran his hand through it, his heart stopping at the sight of the bloody mess of her shirt from the bullet wound to her chest.

He was almost certain of the tear streak down her face and then his eyes came to rest on her tightly clamped hand. He gently reached for it and pulled back her fingers to find what she'd clenched there--- her necklace. She'd worn it every day for as long as he'd known her. 'Fearlessness'--- her life had been lived by that word and she'd helped so many victims to find it in themselves. And he couldn't help but feel as though this had been meant to be her final word... maybe to him.

He stood up, now clenching it tightly in his own hand.

A uniform stood next to him now. The grim, solemn expression on his face suggesting he'd been in the Detective's very position at some point in his thirty year career.

"Detective Olivia Benson?" They'd need the positive I.D.

Elliot simply nodded, before kneeling down and pulling the coat gently back over her.

Kate Taylor

August, 2007


End file.
